1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of testing samples of biological fluids for specific component species and in particular, the determination of alcohol in blood by the use of fluorescence spectroscopy.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of enzymes in chemical analysis for the determination of various components in biological fluids is gaining rapidly as a practical analytical technique. This technique generally involves the measurement of the concentration of one or more produce species or other change in the condition of a solution following an enzyme-catalyzed reaction in which a specific enzyme is utilized to catalyze a known specific reaction. One specific reaction which has been found very useful is the detection of ethyl alcohol or other alcohols in biological fluids utilizing the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH). It has been found that ADH catalyzes the reaction between certain alcohols, for example, ethyl alcohol and nicotinamide-adenine-dinucleotide (NAD) to produce the corresponding aldehyde plus NADH.sub.2. Using ethyl alcohol as an example, the following reaction takes place: EQU CH.sub.3 CH.sub.2 OH + NAD.sup.ADH CH.sub.3 CHO + NADH.sub.2
the above reaction is normally conducted with a slight excess of NAD to assure that all the ethyl alcohol is oxidized. The amount NADH.sub.2 can then be measured spectrophotometrically. This has been done, for example, by measuring the NADH.sub.2 at 340 nm using a conventional UV spectrophotometer.
Prior art devices utilizing the above reaction for the determination of blood alcohol concentration have been essentially batch-type operations wherein fresh enzyme must be utilized for each test. Also, special cleaning steps must be utilized to insure that residual products of one reaction are not present to interfere with readings taken for subsequent tests. The cost of continually replenishing the enzyme along with the other drawbacks associated with the batch-type operation have rendered the costs of such testing in many cases prohibitive.